Disposal of hazardous materials presents a significant environmental challenge. For some types of hazardous materials, commercially acceptable processes have been developed to render the materials less hazardous. Other hazardous materials still present a meaningful challenge. One such hazardous material is chemical warfare materiel, such as explosively configured chemical munitions, binary weapons, and the like. Chemical warfare materiel is typically deemed unsafe for transport, long-term storage, or simple disposal, e.g., in a landfill. The limitations on transporting chemical warfare materiel call for a transportable system that can be used safely to destroy chemical warfare materials.
An existing transportable Explosive Destruction System (EDS) has been developed with the support of U.S. DOE Contract No. DE-AC04-94AL85000. The EDS uses shaped charges to access the chemical agent and destroy the burster and then treats the residue in the chamber with large volumes of aqueous solutions. After two hours or more of reaction time, the resulting liquid is collected through a drain in the chamber by tilting the chamber at an angle. Though the wet chemical treatment method employed by the EDS reduces handling and transportation restrictions associated with the highly toxic starting materials, the method requires the use of liquid chemical solutions that are toxic, such as monoethanolamine, or corrosive, such as sodium hydroxide. The product of the EDS process is a hazardous liquid waste.
Some chemical warfare munitions have been decommissioned using large rotary kilns or the like operating at very high temperatures (e.g., 1,500-2,000° F. or higher) for an extended period. Such systems are large, essentially immobile installations. As a result, such an installation must be built on-site wherever chemical warfare materiel is located or the materiel must be transported to the facility. Neither of these options is desirable. In addition, such kilns generally require that munitions be deactivated before being introduced. Although they may be designed to withstand blasts from an occasional unexploded munition, they are not built to withstand the rigors of repeated explosions resulting from treating large numbers of unexploded munitions.